Live: Mkt scales fresh highs after trade balance data

2:30 pm: Indian shares zoomed back above the flat line to make fresh all-time highs after a larger-than-expected fall in India’s trade deficit for October, coming in at USD 13.36 billion (versus 14.25 billion month-on-month).

At the time of writing, Sensex was up 0.5 percent, or 132 points to 28,178 while Nifty too climbed 0.4 percent, or 32 points, to 8,422.

Part of the decline in the trade deficit was led by a decline in oil imports (presumably due to falling prices).

Early, markets treaded water for most part of the day, following weakness in Asian shares.

Most sectors barring IT and pharma are now firmly in the green. (Check out sector movements here ).

Several stocks, which were down earlier, have now cllimbed back up. A news-driven stock that has caught our eye is India Cements, now up 3.8 percent, after chief N Srinivasan (also BCCI president-in-exile) was given a clean chit by Supreme Court in the IPL spot fixing case today.

2:00 pm: Indian equities gave up early losses to trade close to flat.

At the time of writing, the Sensex is trading practically flat at 28,039, close to where it closed Friday while the Nifty is down a meager 0.08 percent, or 6.7 points, to 8383.

In sector movers, public sector banks are leading the move, thanks to a sterling 4.1 percent jump in SBI. Autos, too, are witnessing buying while IT and pharma stocks are in the red.

Early on, Indian shares followed their Asian peers down after a surprise contraction in GDP plunged Japan into recession.

Market experts also attributed the consolidation to a pause after the scorching rally Indian markets have witnessed recently (the Sensex closed at all-time highs on Friday) amid some concerns on valuations.

But the rally may continue and the market may make fresh highs soon, according to Religare Capital CMD Gautam Trivedi, given that FIIs were continuing to buy.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Trivedi said : “FIIs continue to dominate the market and based on where they are physically sitting, they find India the most attractive among all the emerging markets and hence money flow will continue and with the Winter Session [of the Parliament] the market could potentially break new highs.”

At a recent conference in New Delhi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had pledged that the government would initiate slew of economic reforms in the Winter Session, including push to make changes in the Land Acquisition Act as well as formalize its move to increase FDI cap in sectors such as insurance.